Women of the Nation: Between Black Protest and Sunni Islam

by Dawn-Marie Gibson, Jamillah Karim

Overview

Presents oral histories and interviews of women who belong to Nation of Islam

With vocal public figures such as Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, and Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam often appears to be a male-centric religious movement, and over 60 years of scholarship have perpetuated that notion. Yet, women have been pivotal in the NOI's development, playing a major role in creating the public image that made it appealing and captivating.

Women of the Nation draws on oral histories and interviews with approximately 100 women across several cities to provide an overview of women's historical contributions and their varied experiences of the NOI, including both its continuing community under Farrakhan and its offshoot into Sunni Islam under Imam W.D. Mohammed. The authors examine how women have interpreted and navigated the NOI's gender ideologies and practices, illuminating the experiences of African-American, Latina, and Native American women within the NOI and their changing roles within this patriarchal movement. The book argues that the Nation of Islam experience for women has been characterized by an expression of Islam sensitive to American cultural messages about race and gender, but also by gender and race ideals in the Islamic tradition. It offers the first exhaustive study of women’s experiences in both the NOI and the W.D. Mohammed community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814769959
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	07/11/2014
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dawn-Marie Gibson is a Lecturer in Twentieth-Century U.S History in the Department of History at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Jamillah Karim is an international lecturer in race, gender, and Islam in America. She was formerly Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Spelman College. She is the author of American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class, and Gender within the Ummah.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. “Our Nation”: Women and the NOI, Pre-1975
2. “Thank God It Changed!”: Women’s Transition to Sunni Islam, 1975–80
3. Resurrecting the Nation: Women in Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam
4. Women in the Nation of Islam and the Warith Deen Mohammed Community: Crafting a Dialogue
Conclusion
Notes Index
About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

"This text emerges to provide some transparency for readers about these womens lives and the lives of those who left the Nation to follow Warith Deen Mohammed. Women are in the foreground, but not without the persistent and sometimes overriding presence of the men that they marry, contend with, and serve. The co-authors actually have different strengthsKarim is an insider while Gibson is the outsider. The resultant collaboration provides readers with varying lenses into this community of women."

Choice

"Will add handsomely to the growing body of scholarship on the important topic of Islam in America, with particular reference to Islam in the black American community. The authors have provided us a useful and fascinating glimpse into an extremely interesting and undertheorized subject."

Sherman A. Jackson

"A fascinating and well researched book that expands our knowledge about Islam in the United States. Its analysis of the interactions between the Nation of Islam and mainstream Islam is a model for the scholarship on African American Islam. Anyone who wishes to understand the complex religious identities of contemporary African-American Muslim women should read this book."

Richard Brent Turner

"Women of the Nationwill prove an essential resource for any scholar or teacher interested in the experiences and contributions of black women to both Islam and black nationalism in American history."

The Journal of American History